The $3 billion effort, dubbed the Moon Shots Program, will bring together large teams of researchers and clinicians to mount attacks in the next decade on cancers that annually account for nearly 750,000 cases and more than 260,000 deaths. Those figures represent nearly half of the nation's totals in both categories.

"The Moon Shots Program signals our confidence that the path to curing cancer is in clearer sight than at any previous time in history," M.D. Anderson President Dr. Ronald DePinho said in a statement. "Thanks to what we've learned over the past decade, we now have many of the tools we need."

The initiative sounds like the sort of effort that might come from the White House or National Cancer Institute. But DePinho said M.D. Anderson's 19,000 employees, 100,000 patients and 10 million diagnostic procedures a year make it a logical place to undertake such an enterprise.

The targets are lung, prostate and ovarian cancer, a particularly aggressive type of breast cancer, melanoma, two common types of leukemia and another blood cancer - all diseases for which there is little treatment, newfound molecular understanding and considerable M.D. Anderson expertise. They were selected by committees of internal and external reviewers after a year of discussions.

The program is the follow-up to a pledge DePinho made in his inaugural speech to faculty and staff last year, soon after he was selected as M.D. Anderson's fourth president. In that speech, DePinho said he wanted M.D. Anderson to develop "a bold and ambitious plan for curing several cancers." Press materials for the initiative, however, shy away from that bold a promise.

But the initiative is likely to raise big hopes.

Its Moon Shots title is a nod to President John F. Kennedy's famous speech at Rice University 50 years ago declaring the United States would "go to the moon in this decade." It also recalls President Richard Nixon's 1971 remark, upon signing the National Cancer Act, that "the time has come in America when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread disease."

'A marathon'

In the decades since, progress has come slowly and incrementally, causing experts to warn against promises for cures. With 1.6 million U.S. people still diagnosed annually and 575,000 still dying, experts' favorite metaphor for the war on cancer is "a marathon."

Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical and scientific adviser for the American Cancer Society, said rumors he had heard about the initiative had given him "concern it was going to overpromise what it could deliver." But he called the initiative's final mission statement "very appropriate."

"At a time when federal funding for cancer research is flat, I applaud any program that could improve morale and galvanize public support for cancer research," said Brawley. "We're at a time when we have new knowledge, but the only way we're going to make dramatic progress is a large-scale concerted effort. If M.D. Anderson is the one to lead that effort, I'll praise them for that."

Officials at the National Cancer Institute declined comment on the initiative.

James Olson, a Sam Houston State University professor who has written histories of M.D. Anderson and breast cancer, said the Houston center initiative likely will receive criticism similar to the comments that followed Nixon's pledge to cure cancer, but he said it wouldn't be as applicable. Olson called the 1971 rhetoric "pie in the sky."

DePinho said recent advances, particularly genetic knowledge and new technology, make the initiative possible now. He said knowledge of what makes the chosen cancers tick will enable M.D. Anderson to "pick a fight" and make progress.

The initiative will be funded by philanthropy, competitive research grants, commercialization of new discoveries and institutional earnings. DePinho said the initiative currently has "tens of millions of dollars" in cash from program donations. He said it doesn't yet have new grants.

List may grow later

The eight selected cancers were narrowed from a list of 13 that circulated internally in July. DePinho said the ones not chosen, such as colorectal, pancreatic and bladder cancers, and others, such as sarcoma and head and neck cancers, may be added to the program later. Research on these and other cancers will continue outside the framework of the Moon Shots program.

The focus of the chosen cancers will include: replacing traditional chemotherapy used for chronic lymphocytic leukemia with less toxic, immunity-building oral treatment; determining which smokers are at greatest risk of lung cancer so they can get screening; identifying the distinguishing characteristics that distinguish a lethal prostate cancer from its more slow-growing counterparts; and discovering treatment options for ovarian cancer and triple-negative breast cancer, which are fueled by similar underlying molecular events.

Implementation of the program will begin in February 2013, M.D. Anderson officials said.